What is lead scoring?
A number that ranks leads by how likely they are to buy, so attention goes to the right ones first.
Lead scoring — Lead scoring assigns each lead a number that predicts how likely it is to become a customer, from fit (who they are) and behaviour (what they did). It exists to decide who gets attention first.
Why it matters
A sales team with more leads than time has to decide who to call first. Lead scoring answers that by combining two kinds of signal into one number: fit, whether this lead looks like the kind of company or person that becomes a customer, based on industry, size or role, and behaviour, what they have actually done, like visiting a pricing page or opening three emails in a week. A high score should mean both good fit and real engagement, not only one.
A score that a rep cannot explain gets ignored fast. If a lead scores 82 and nobody can say why, a rep learns within a few weeks that the number is not worth checking before deciding who to call. A score built from visible, named factors, "director-level title, visited pricing twice, opened the last email", holds up under scrutiny and gives a rep something to act on, not only a ranking to trust blindly. The factors and their weights are also worth revisiting periodically, since what actually predicted a close six months ago is not guaranteed to still be true.
How a lead score is built
- 1
Fit factors are defined
Industry, company size, title, or other attributes of who the lead is.
- 2
Behaviour factors are defined
Page visits, email opens, replies, or other signals of what they did.
- 3
Each factor gets a weight
Set from evidence about what has actually predicted a close before.
- 4
A lead's score is computed
Combining its fit and behaviour factors into one number.
- 5
The score drives prioritisation
Higher-scored leads surface first in a rep's queue or a next-best-action list.
The mistake to watch for
Questions
- How is lead scoring different from lead qualification?
- Lead qualification is usually a manual or rule-based judgment, often binary, about whether a lead is worth pursuing. Lead scoring produces a graded number from multiple weighted factors, useful for ranking a whole list rather than a single yes-or-no call.
- What factors should go into a lead score?
- A mix of fit, who the lead is, and behaviour, what they have done, each one visible enough that a rep can see why a lead scored the way it did.
- How often should a lead scoring model be reviewed?
- Periodically, checked against which scored leads actually closed, since the factors that predicted a sale can shift as the market or the offer changes.